Single Idea 7118

[catalogued under 15. Nature of Minds / B. Features of Minds / 2. Unconscious Mind]

Full Idea

La Rochefoucauld is one of the first to have made use of the unconscious without naming it: for him, amour-propre conceals itself in the most diverse disguises.

Clarification

Amour-propre (Fr) is self-love

Gist of Idea

La Rochefoucauld's idea of disguised self-love implies an unconscious mind

Source

report of La Rochefoucauld (Maxims [1663]) by Jean-Paul Sartre - Transcendence of the Ego I (C)

Book Reference

Sartre,Jean-Paul: 'The Transcendence of the Ego' [Routledge 2004], p.17


A Reaction

It seems odd that no one before that ever thought that someone might have hidden motives of which even they themselves were unaware. How about Iago, or Macbeth, or Hamlet? It is a profound change in our view of human nature.